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PIER Program Long-Term Priorities

As a "proof-of-concept" program, EISG seeks out concepts that are not yet proven and are very early in the research pipeline: so early that even angel investors may not yet be willing to invest. The EISG program encourages technical innovation and risk taking.
Since the EISG program focuses on innovative concepts at the very early stage of development, the goal is to uncover a few good ideas and start them on the path of development, leading to ratepayer benefits and the development of new technologies that will benefit the California economy.
Following are suggested research topics for several PIER areas of public interest RD&D.

Economic models that enable analysis of the energy savings and value of multiple circuit compressors/evaporators in large systems and with the staged operation of fans. The models must be demonstrated with real-world data.

Technical solutions that improve the energy performance of buildings.

Fault detection with diagnosis in lighting and for such appliances as refrigerators.

Low energy cooling systems, such as evaporators, that match the needs of builders and customers while providing superior cooling performance.

No-maintenance evaporative cooling for schools (schools usually have minimal funding for maintenance).

Industry, Agriculture and Water

Public domain models that locate and aggregate customer loads for critical peak reduction using information from the customers' energy management systems.

Advancements in materials science and architecture that will improve inverter performance, such as current-carrying capacity and reliability, at reduced cost.

A public domain, user-friendly Excel model for easier investigation of energy storage, enabling the user to enter parametric data for the site and its application so that the model provides general specifications, cost, performance and economics.

Non-tracking optics for the distribution within buildings and use of natural lighting and with the UV removed.

Lower cost, more reliable sensors and controls for industrial processes, such as refinery operations.

More accurate and economic flow measuring in compressed air and steam systems for tie-in to industrial control rooms.

Improved knowledge-based control optimization for food processing.

Improved decision-based models to be used by management for risk assessment when considering process modifications and water management.

Modeling the value and cost of water for real time pricing of water use in California to determine if there is there enough value to justify further investigation of real-time pricing.

Advanced materials to economically improve the life expectancy of impellers in lift pumps.

Improve the performance and reduce the cost of anaerobic digestion of livestock manure, wastewater and food processing waste.

Improve the performance and reduce the cost of landfill gas to energy systems.

Geothermal

Reduce the levelized cost of electricity from geothermal energy by reducing the cost of exploration, well drilling and/or O&M and capital costs.

Develop an advanced thermal desalination system that uses spent geothermal fluids (brine) as a heat source. The distilled water can be used for power plant cooling or to improve the water quality of the existing water body. The brine can be plumbed and re-injected through the power plant's conveyance system.

Hydroelectric

Extraction of low head hydro with minimal or no impact on the environment and reduced costs.

Other

Advanced energy harvesting technologies to exploit low energy density sources with high efficiency. Currently, concepts exist to exploit the temperature differences between any two reservoirs that are not in thermal equilibrium (e.g. ocean and land surfaces, air and shallow subsurface, etc.) for very low power demands. Such technologies could be useful when integrated into lower power home and industrial applications, and for recharging small batteries.